Before our invention it was estimated that worldwide one out of every four deaths of children under the age of five was due to a water related disease. In addition, it was estimated that on average 1.4 million children die each year from waterborne diseases. Statistics indicated that as much as one half of the world's hospitalizations were due to water related diseases, and that only approximately 60% of the world's population had access to improved sanitation and clean water. It was also estimated that nearly one billion people were suffering needlessly and were without access to safe water. Furthermore, it was well documented that in many places in the world clean, safe drinking water is scarce or nonexistent all together.
According to WATER.ORG, the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, and others, more people in the world own a cell phone than have access to a toilet, which raises public health sanitation concerns. Furthermore, as cities and slums are expected to grow, the prediction is that the increasing rates of poor situation and hygiene are only going to get worse. Sanitation is a root cause of contaminated water sources and waterborne diseases. It is estimated that everyday the lack of access to clean water kills thousands of people. Even worse those people who don't die of their waterborne disease are often left with a reduced quality of life.
To get a better understanding of just how serious the problem of waterborne illness and a lack of safe clean drinking water really is, below is a partial list of some of the waterborne pathogens commonly found in unsanitary water environments. This list includes viral agents such as hepatitis A, and the noroviruse; parasitic agents such as giardia lamblia, cryptosporidium, and cyclosporiasis; and bacterial agents such as escherichia coli (e. coli), salmonella, campylobacter, shingella, and vibrio cholerae. 
Though commonly found in unsanitary water conditions these and other pathogens can outbreak anytime and are often abundant at times of natural disaster and states of emergency, where a population of people are unprepared, and sanitation becomes a concern, such as during earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tornadoes, and other types of disasters.
To this end, a shortcoming of current water treatment equipment can be that they only rely on membrane type filters to remove particulates and process unsanitary water sources. These types of system do not actively kill the microorganisms (viral, parasitic, and bacterial agents), which are often present in the unsanitary water. Instead, these treatment systems try to capture microorganisms in the filter membrane. This method often fails as many microorganisms are too small to be trapped in filter membranes. As such, often the pathogens simply pass through the filter membrane and remain in the processed water where they can cause illness.
Shortcomings of other treatment equipment can be that they add chemicals to try to treat the unsanitary water. This often results in discolored water or treated water with a chemical composition and odor. Furthermore, often the treated water then needs to be filtered again to try to remove the added chemicals, before the water can be used. Often when the chemical supply runs out they are not replaced and as a result the treatment equipment is often rendered ineffective.
Another shortcoming of existing water treatment systems can be cost, size, and complexity. It is just impractical to think that a high cost water treatment system, a water treatment system that is too big and not portable, or a water treatment system that involves a high level of complexity can be reliably deployed into developing countries or places of sudden disaster or state of emergency and be effective.
For these reasons and shortcomings as well as other reasons and shortcomings there is a long felt need that gives rise to the present invention.